Nepalis Sacrifice Goats to Stop Floods in South Asia

[senorpepr]

KATHMANDU (Reuters) - People in flood-hit Nepal sacrificed goats in swollen rivers on Sunday as they prayed for an end to a deluge in South Asia that has killed more than 350 people and left millions homeless.

The impoverished region has been reeling under its worst floods in 15 years after torrential rains in India, Bangladesh and Nepal that left people marooned in remote villages.

"People sacrifice goats to please the Hindu rain god Indra, believing there will be no more floods or natural disasters," said Raju Thapa, a 60-year-old resident of Kathmandu, the Nepali capital.

A Reuters witness saw four goats being sacrificed on the outskirts of the capital in a ritual which government officials said was being repeated around the country.

Heavy rains have also battered parts of western Japan, sending rivers surging over their banks, causing two deaths forcing the evacuation of thousands.

China's Xinhua news agency reported floods were threatening vast tracts of land in the remote Tibetan plateau after rainfall in some areas hit record highs. More than 31,000 people in the region have been affected by flooding.

In Afghanistan, two children were killed in flooding in the central highlands, taking to 10 the toll from unusually heavy rain in parts of the country.

But worst-hit is South Asia, where some 12 million people have been hit by torrential rains and more than eight million left marooned or made homeless by floods since the monsoon season began.

Angry flood victims in the poverty-stricken region, where floods have inundated vast tracts of farmland and cut rail and road links, demonstrated on Sunday for a third day in protest against inadequate relief supplies of food.

There were food riots in the eastern Indian state of Bihar, where angry villagers raided state-run grain warehouses and slogan-shouting demonstrators held protests outside government offices.

RAIL LINKS CUT OFF

Floods continued to inundate fresh areas in Bangladesh, where huge stretches of farmland have been submerged and 300,000 people have been stranded in their flooded homes.

Five people died when a boat capsized in a river, taking the total death toll in the floods in Bangladesh to 133 this season.

Road and rail links between the capital, Dhaka, and the northern and southern regions were cut off as torrents washed away several ferry terminals on both sides of the rivers Padma, Jamuna and Brahmaputra.

"For the last four days, we're almost unfed; no one with relief has come to help us," said Abdul Ghani Sheikh, head of a six-member family, at Kazipara about 94 miles from Dhaka.

Authorities in eastern India have been rushing medicine and food to people stranded in the states of Assam and Bihar.

"The situation is still very serious," said a police official in Patna, the capital of Bihar. "The administration's main work now is to provide relief to the affected people. There is hardly any rescuing to be done."

Residents in Guwahati, the largest city in the northeast, said many neighborhoods were still knee-deep in water.

"Fields outside the city have turned into a sea of water ... Sewage is flowing in houses and streets as the drainage is not working," said insurance worker Siddarth Bordoloy.

In Nepal, about 12,000 people are already suffering from gastroenteritis and other water-borne diseases.

"There will be a rise in dysentery, typhoid and snake bites in coming days and we are ready to face the situation effectively," said a senior health official in Kathmandu.


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